


The Show Must Go On

by babydraco



Series: Little Queens [1]
Category: Kings
Genre: AU, Deleted Scenes, F/F, F/M, Femslash, Ficlets, Gen, Genderswap, Minor Character Death, Rule 63, one shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 12:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babydraco/pseuds/babydraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Queen Rose always has to do everything.  </p><p>short  "Kings"   fics  set in my  Rule 63  AU (a world in which both Jack and David are female,  Jack's still gay,  David's bisexual) .   Scenes that didn't make it into the final fic,  alternate takes,  alternate futures,  scenes from other points of view,  etc.   I will warn for triggers/inappropriate content when it/if it comes up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Show Must Go On

**Author's Note:**

> takes place years after the final chapter of "Queens".

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can't save someone. 

And what could Dianna do, after having made so many grand speeches about how even the powerful in Gilboa would be subject to the rule of law? What was she supposed to do, when that girl's family accused Ammon? Teenagers at a drunken yacht party , a terrified girl making a desperate call from a payphone, their son hauled in for questioning... 

Dianna sat in Silas's old study in the country house, one hand over her face, the other fiddling with a tumbler of whiskey. 

“I run a survivor's network,” Jaqui said. “ _I'm_ a survivor. I can't let this go. Not personally, not professionally. None of us should.” 

“I know,” Dianna said quietly. “But when it comes right down to it, how does the queen admit she made a mistake without losing...support? But if it comes to light anyway, I'll still lose support.”

“None of this is your fault,” Jaqui said. “Even I took too long to realize he was growing into one of those men and I tried to help him. He needs _prison_ , Dianna. He can't be allowed to do this again. And he _will_. They _always do_. And Dianna, Gilboan women are still receiving harsher sentences for defending themselves against assault than men are getting for assaulting them. Your regime was supposed to improve these situations.”

“I know!” Dianna snapped. “I don't need a lecture on rape statistics, _General Benjamin_.” 

“Would you rather I make this go away quietly? Send him on 'diplomatic training' to Albion but actually send him to my father's secret cells? You've stayed in one of those, how's the food?” 

Dianna let out a miserable sob and threw the whiskey glass at her, barely missing her head. 

“Well, fuck you too,” Jaqui snapped and stormed out. 

Ammon's body was found hanging from the shower rod in his beach condo the night they told him he'd be serving a prison sentence, and, although it would only be two years in minimum security, it would be a matter of public record. They were not going to hide it for him and he would make a public apology to his victim's family. Jaqui stared at his lifeless body as the police moved around her, putting things in evidence bags and waving ultraviolet lights around. Jaqui peered closer at his neck and hands. Then she frowned. 

People who are going to hang themselves don't have rope burn on their wrists. And they are either fully dressed, or they make sure to be naked, they don't hang themselves with bath towels still wrapped around their waist as if they were caught in the middle of something. She pushed past the cops and demanded to see the condo's security cameras. 

Queen Mother Rose was drinking tea in the garden when Jaqui found her. She glanced up as if she expected a visit from her horrified daughter. 

“Ammon killed himself last night,” Jaqui announced. “His mother is hysterical with grief.” 

“I imagine the poor child couldn't face the thought of shaming his family,” Rose said calmly. “You really must try this tea, it's a lovely honey chamomile.” It had other things laced in it as well, Jaqui was sure, because Rose was in pain so often these days, arthritis and glaucoma conspiring to make her unable to leave the house on her own most days. 

“Mother...did you... _do something_?” Jaqui dug her sharp little nails into her own palms. 

“Why do you care so much?” Rose asked. “It's not as if he's your own son.”

“If I chose to love a child based on whether I'd chosen to have him in my life or not, I didn't ask for Adon either. Not at first. But he's here now and I love him- and I love all my other children just as much even though I never carried them for nine months and pulled them out of my body in blood, and pain. And I care about the fact that Abigail is inconsolable- because I'm a mother too and I can imagine what she feels.” _And a life is a life, if you'd ever done your own dirty work, like killing someone with your bare hands, like I have, you'd understand...if I'd wanted the kid dead, he'd have already been dead by my own hand._. 

“My god...” Rose said, staring at her. “You _are_ , aren't you. Should I expect no mercy, then?”

“I think we've shown you twenty years of mercy,” Jaqui said. “It's up to the queen whether we show you any more.”

**Author's Note:**

> So one issue that came up for me is how will the various scandals and rebellions perpetrated by Ammon and Absalom in the Bible story be affected by the characters having badass lesbian moms who outrank their dads politically and militarily? I'd like to think the outcome would be less horrifying and tragic. And I've also, Bible savvy readers may notice, already kind of did a Kingsverse take on Ammon/Tamar. But then I wanted to see what would happen if something went wrong _anyway_.


End file.
